Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates And What You Can Do About It 
asked by dannyboy on November 17, 2006 12:14 AM
A groundbreaking book explains what really causes Attention Deficit Disorder.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) has quickly become a controversial topic in recent years. Whereas other books on the subject describe the condition as inherited, Dr. Gabor Mate believes that our social and emotional environments play a key role in both the cause of and cure for this condition. In Scattered, he describes the painful realities of ADD and its effect on children as well as on career and social paths in adults. While acknowledging that genetics may indeed play a part in predisposing a person toward ADD, Dr. Mate moves beyond that to focus on the things we can control: changes in environment, family dynamics, and parenting choices. He draws heavily on his own experience with the disorder, as both an ADD sufferer and the parent of three diagnosed children. Providing a thorough overview of ADD and its treatments, Scattered is essential and life-changing reading for the millions of ADD sufferers in North America today.
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Five years ago, I picked up this book and, mesmerized, read it in one sitting. With content so rich and insightful, I felt perhaps I should stop and absorb each chapter before continuing. Yet Mate's elegant writing was too captivating and flowing to put down.
Today, it is the book in my extensive ADHD library that I turn to when I need reminding of the core concepts, such as "counterwill," Mate's term for oppositional defiance. So many other books about ADHD float on the surface or focus on medical treatment options. While I would be the last person to minimize the importance of medication -- I've seen in too many people medication's dramatic effects and their immense gratitude -- there is so much more to understanding ADHD.
For example, here is an excerpt on Counterwill:
"Children with attention deficit disorder are often characterized as stubborn, oppositional, cheeky, insolent, spoiled. "Wilful" is a description almost universally applied to them.... ADD children can hardly be said to have a will at all, if by that is meant a capacity which enables a person to know what he wants and to hold to that goal regardless of setbacks, difficulties, or distracting impulses....
"...Counterwill is an automatic resistance put up by a human being with an incompletely developed sense of self, a reflexive and unthinking going against the will of the other. It is a natural but immature resistance arising from the fear of being controlled. Counterwill arises in anyone who has not yet developed a mature and conscious will of their own. Although it can remain active throughout life, normally it makes its most dramatic appearance during the toddler phase, and again in adolescence. In many people, and in the vast majority of children with ADD, it becomes entrenched as an ever-present force and may remain powerfully active well into adulthood. It immensely complicates personal relationships, school performance, and job or career success."
(You can read more excerpts from the book -- entire chapters -- at www.scatteredminds.com)
Passages such as that completely unlocked the door to understanding for me. When it comes to ADHD, I've learned, what's "obvious" on the surface seldom holds water under close scrutiny. Despite having read dozens of books and articles on ADHD, I've not seen this perception on counterwill expressed and yet, from my observation, it is bedrock truth. And, it is only one of the profound concepts Dr. Mate exlains.
As for the nature/nurture issue, we know so little about genetic expression. Last time I looked, at least 7 genes, in various combinations and subsets, are thought contributory to ADHD. Perhaps it will be 10-20 years or more before we understand this highly heritable condition. I do know many mothers of children with ADHD who say that, even in utero, the child was clearly hyperactive. Some cases are less clear-cut. There are no hard and fast answers here.
That said, recent genetic studies reinforce Dr. Mate's theories, showing that the presence of a "behavior"-related gene does not guarantee its expression. For example, the recently discovered "shyness" gene seems to express in children who have it only under stressful conditions. (You can read more about this in a Jan 2006 Wall Street Journal's "Science Journal" column.) The idea is not to make parents feel guilty, as some have suggested, but to expand our knowledge and help future generations of children as much as possible. For instance, the epigenetic factors are good reason to encourage parents of children with ADHD to undergo screening for ADHD themselves. Studies have shown the often deleterious effect of living with a parent's untreated ADHD.
Today, it is the book in my extensive ADHD library that I turn to when I need reminding of the core concepts, such as "counterwill," Mate's term for oppositional defiance. So many other books about ADHD float on the surface or focus on medical treatment options. While I would be the last person to minimize the importance of medication -- I've seen in too many people medication's dramatic effects and their immense gratitude -- there is so much more to understanding ADHD.
For example, here is an excerpt on Counterwill:
"Children with attention deficit disorder are often characterized as stubborn, oppositional, cheeky, insolent, spoiled. "Wilful" is a description almost universally applied to them.... ADD children can hardly be said to have a will at all, if by that is meant a capacity which enables a person to know what he wants and to hold to that goal regardless of setbacks, difficulties, or distracting impulses....
"...Counterwill is an automatic resistance put up by a human being with an incompletely developed sense of self, a reflexive and unthinking going against the will of the other. It is a natural but immature resistance arising from the fear of being controlled. Counterwill arises in anyone who has not yet developed a mature and conscious will of their own. Although it can remain active throughout life, normally it makes its most dramatic appearance during the toddler phase, and again in adolescence. In many people, and in the vast majority of children with ADD, it becomes entrenched as an ever-present force and may remain powerfully active well into adulthood. It immensely complicates personal relationships, school performance, and job or career success."
(You can read more excerpts from the book -- entire chapters -- at www.scatteredminds.com)
Passages such as that completely unlocked the door to understanding for me. When it comes to ADHD, I've learned, what's "obvious" on the surface seldom holds water under close scrutiny. Despite having read dozens of books and articles on ADHD, I've not seen this perception on counterwill expressed and yet, from my observation, it is bedrock truth. And, it is only one of the profound concepts Dr. Mate exlains.
As for the nature/nurture issue, we know so little about genetic expression. Last time I looked, at least 7 genes, in various combinations and subsets, are thought contributory to ADHD. Perhaps it will be 10-20 years or more before we understand this highly heritable condition. I do know many mothers of children with ADHD who say that, even in utero, the child was clearly hyperactive. Some cases are less clear-cut. There are no hard and fast answers here.
That said, recent genetic studies reinforce Dr. Mate's theories, showing that the presence of a "behavior"-related gene does not guarantee its expression. For example, the recently discovered "shyness" gene seems to express in children who have it only under stressful conditions. (You can read more about this in a Jan 2006 Wall Street Journal's "Science Journal" column.) The idea is not to make parents feel guilty, as some have suggested, but to expand our knowledge and help future generations of children as much as possible. For instance, the epigenetic factors are good reason to encourage parents of children with ADHD to undergo screening for ADHD themselves. Studies have shown the often deleterious effect of living with a parent's untreated ADHD.
reviewed by bigben on November 21, 2006 3:33 AM
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Dr. Mate provides an interesting thesis, but it just doesn't ring true. We have counseled thousands of children with ADHD, including hundreds which came from stable, two-parent homes where the parents were very in tune with their child.
Parents don't need this guilt trip. What they do need are practical solutions and steps to cultivate their child's natural gifts, talents and passions. This is what breeds confidence.
We use Kirk Martin' Celebrate!ADHD paradigm in our practice, and it has worked wonderfully for both parents and children. Kirk Martin has been called the "ADHD Super Nanny" and we'd recommend his E-Courses and Book, "Celebrate!ADHD" before you read "Scattered." You can find free tips and a newsletter at the celebrateADHD website.
It's difficult to endorse Dr. Mate's work when his underlying premise has so many flaws.
Parents don't need this guilt trip. What they do need are practical solutions and steps to cultivate their child's natural gifts, talents and passions. This is what breeds confidence.
We use Kirk Martin' Celebrate!ADHD paradigm in our practice, and it has worked wonderfully for both parents and children. Kirk Martin has been called the "ADHD Super Nanny" and we'd recommend his E-Courses and Book, "Celebrate!ADHD" before you read "Scattered." You can find free tips and a newsletter at the celebrateADHD website.
It's difficult to endorse Dr. Mate's work when his underlying premise has so many flaws.
reviewed by anexpert on November 23, 2006 3:23 AM
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Mate offers a very fresh, insightful interpretation of ADD as a cognitive vulnerability that may or may not manifest itself, or manifest itself in varying degrees depending on one's environment. In this sense, the book takes a ecological approach to the problem; ADD, according to the author, is not biological determinism and it's not cultural construct and it's not some conspiracy to keep certain children in their place and it's not a pharmaceutical ploy for more business. Anyone who has taken prescribed Ritalin knows it's about the cheapest prescription drug on the market (and has been around nearly the longest). The author simply points out that according to current and provisional informed research (and research can only be provisional unless we can stop time), the idea that symptoms of ADD are a result of many forces--chemical, environmental, cultural, and developmental--just makes sense. Since Mate's analysis is moderately complex in comparison to most analyses in most popular ADD books, it may turn off those who want a quick pat explanation to the "disorder." The author is a doctor with ADD; so his analysis is both research oriented and phenomenological. He is also smart enough not to use the word "prove" in his book because he knows he isn't proving anything: he is simply making his own best inferences based on current knowledge. He makes sense; and he adds to the current literature on the subject. If you have been diagnosed with ADD, you will nod your head in agreement through much of the book. The author also has a gift for writing, having been a former English teacher. Thus, his language is on a level of sophistication which does justice to the subject, and lends his observations authority. This is far different from the "cookbook" breezy style of so many other authors who address the subject.
reviewed by shagdag on November 25, 2006 1:28 AM